Choices
by St. Berry 4
Summary: Everything was about choices for Jesse. Returning to Vocal Adrenaline was one, but now he had to choose between his club and her. Set during the episode 'Funk'


**A/N: I was beyond mad at what happened with Rachel and Jesse on Glee tonight. Honestly, I know Jesse's character is a bit shady, but I don't think he's that evil. They made him seem like one of the jocks that are always picking on Rachel and he even said with Shelby that he didn't want to see Rachel hurt! So this is my rebellious story with an ending I would have liked so much better to do with Rachel and Jesse.**

**Happy Reading.**

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The second she came around the row of cars, he knew that this wasn't what he wanted. This wasn't what he was about. Rachel may deserve a lot of things of life, like becoming a Broadway star, but being egged by his stupid soulless teammates was not one of them. Seeing her turn and smile at him, as if everything was going to be okay now that she had him again, made him hate Shelby that little much more for ever having him get involved with her daughter the way that he did.

The smile on his face was starting to drop as she ran her way over to him. He could already see his Vocal Adrenaline teammates starting to slowly creep out from behind the cars in the parking lot, armed with eggs at the ready to launch at his girlfriend. He knew that as soon as one of those eggs hit her it was over though. He had a choice to make and he had to make it fast. She was already almost to him and was likely to slow down enough soon that she would be an easy target for everyone to hit. The question was, was he really ready to denounce himself as Vocal Adrenaline's golden boy?

Staring at Rachel as she came even closer to him, closer to ending everything that he didn't know he was so terrified of losing until now, he thought back to a few weeks before.

She had looked so different then, more what he figured she should look like now. When he'd shown up in the ballet studio to surprise her with his return, she was almost frightened of him it seemed. She'd completely shied away from him, staring resolutely at her feet as she spoke of her Broadway dreams, and didn't seem to want him to come near. As though she thought he was going to hurt her. That's not something he wanted at all. He had been completely sincere when he told Shelby he didn't want to see her get hurt.

Eyes widening slightly, Jesse realized Rachel was slowing down far too early, putting her at too far of distance for him to do anything from where he was standing. He had maybe five seconds now to do something and change the entire outcome of this horrible situation which led him back to his dilemma. Was he ready to give up Vocal Adrenaline for good or was he going to give up Rachel for good.

Eyes narrowing and his resolve steeling completely, he made his move.

At first Rachel seemed pleased at his move, but then shock marred her features as she saw Jesse cocking his arm back to throw something in her direction. Panicking slightly, she closed her eyes waiting for whatever it was in his hand to hit her. She couldn't believe this. She had trusted him. She thought his phone call was him wanting to tell her that even though he switched schools again, he still cared about her and wanted to be with her. That this wasn't all some cruel tactic to make her crumple completely before Regionals, giving Vocal Adrenaline the edge they needed to completely destroy New Directions.

The tears were starting to pool as quickly as Jesse had moved and she tightened her shut eyelids hoping to everything this wasn't happening. Flinching, she heard as Jesse's arm came forward, and waited to feel the blow, not only physically, but emotionally as well.

She flinched again when she heard the crack of something breaking, but whatever it was hadn't hit her. It had hit something behind her.

She'd barely managed to open her eyes when she saw the blue of Jesse's jacket and black of his shirt impair her vision.

He'd managed to wrap his arms around her and turn them just in time, shielding her completely from the blows his teammates were now evoking upon him. He heard Rachel shriek as he spun them in a 180 to switch their standing positions. Then he heard the horrified gasp as she figured out that something was being thrown at them. Her grip tightened on his t-shirt, she must have figured out by now that he was protecting her, and that in reality the real target for what was being thrown at his back was her.

He wrapped her tighter against his chest, head atop of hers, shoulders hunched as best as he could, to ensure that nothing hit her as he felt the last of the eggs break against his shiny blue jacket.

"WHAT THE HELL JESSE!"

Well, now he knew his teammates were definitely pissed at him.

Jesse slowly released Rachel, weary of his teammates possibly still having an egg in their hands, took off his egg covered jacket and turned to face the angry faces of the present Vocal Adrenaline members. Even as he turned to face them though he kept Rachel directly behind him, a hand holding her against his back so that if anyone tried anything he'd be right there to prevent her from getting in harm's way.

Rachel was now gripping the back of Jesse's shirt, in a death grip no less, peering over his shoulder to see exactly what was going on.

The first thing she noticed was a very angry group of Vocal Adrenaline kids standing in a semi circle in front of her and Jesse. The next thing she noticed was that one of the boys, the one who had seemingly just screamed at Jesse, had yolk dripping down his forehead and egg shell pieces stuck in his hair.

'Oh my god.' She glanced down at the ground where Jesse's jacket lay. The back was covered in broken egg shells and yellow yolk. They had planned to throw all those eggs at her. Being a vegan she would have had nightmares about that for weeks and on a competitive level she would have fallen into a worse funk than she was already suffering from lately.

Feeling Jesse's arm press her further into his back, she glanced back up at him, briefly, wondering why he had stopped the whole thing before returning her attention back to the members of Vocal Adrenaline just as, what she assumed was the female lead began yelling.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

Jesse glared. His teammates, and that was loosely using the word now, were such idiots.

"I wasn't going to let you hurt her."

"Oh that's rich. You're telling me you'd rather choose that New Directions reject over us!"

Gazing over his shoulder, Jesse found Rachel staring up him with frightened eyes. He hated that he was the reason behind that look. Shooting her what he hoped was an apologetic, but comforting smile he turned to face his female lead dead on.

"Yeah I would and I am."

Letting out a very unattractive growling type yell she spun around yelling, "Let's go!"

"You forgot something." Jesse said regaining her attention.

Furiou'sly she turned back screaming, "WHAT", just to be hit in the face with Jesse's yolk covered Vocal Adrenaline jacket.

He then turned leading Rachel away from the screaming, shielding her all the while, back towards McKinley high.

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Once they reached the safety of her glee club choir room, Rachel spun around to look angrily upon a guilt ridden Jesse St. James.

"You were going to let them all throw eggs at me!"

"For a second I thought I was going to."

That halted her next comment. She was completely taken aback that he had so readily admitted that that was what was supposed to happen. She figured he would deny it from the get go.

Having knocked her speechless for the moment Jesse continued talking while he had the chance.

"The plan was to come here, call you as I did, and get you to the schools parking lot to begin with." He took a deep breath, looking away from the inquiring eyes fixed upon him. "Vocal Adrenaline was supposed to come out from behind the cars and hit you with every egg we had. Everyone had arrived about 20 minutes before you came outside to hide and ensure everyone knew the plan. Someone was supposed to hit you from directly behind you at first and then the rest would follow a few seconds later."

Rachel was horrified that they had actually planned this, and that _he_ had been a part of it all.

"I was already feeling sick to my stomach over the whole thing, but then I saw you come around the cars in front of that school bus and I just knew." He finally looked back up at her. "I didn't want any of it to happen. Not anyone, but especially not to you."

"How can I believe you?" She looked completely torn over the whole thing. "How do I know that you won't change your mind at a moment's notice and going running off to them again?"

"I don't want them." He said striding over to her, but stopping before their bodies could come into contact. "I want you. I chose you."

She wanted to believe him, so much, but she had to be sure.

"Why?"

"Why?" He took in the look he was giving her, she was willing to give him a chance again, but he had to be completely honest with her now. "Do you remember what I said to you when I first transferred here to be with you?"

She looked confused, but answered all the same.

"You said you cared about me more than winning another National title."

"Do you also remember what I said when I came back from spring break, in the hall outside the ballet room? You were practicing the dance as Laurey in Oklahoma that day."

"You said you came back to win another National title and to make all my dreams come true." She really had no idea where he was going with all of this.

"I still want to make all your dreams come true Rachel." He raised a hand and slowly brought it to her cheek. "I know New Directions can beat Vocal Adrenaline. This group has more heart than Vocal Adrenaline will ever have. There's no question that everyone on that team loves music, singing, and dancing as much as the next show choir, but they don't bring out the passion and joy of performing like everyone here does. They're soulless automatons. Everything is all technical when it comes to performing."

Rachel couldn't help the laugh that left her lips at the soulless automatons comment. She still needed to know he wasn't going to hurt her again though because her heart was already a little bruised and she couldn't take it if he crushed it completely.

"I want let you back in Jesse." She leaned her cheek further into his hand wondering if she was doing the right thing. "But I'm scared of getting hurt again and I just couldn't take if you left again."

"I'm not going to leave again Rachel." He responded as she slowly turned away from him. "Until you ask me to go, I swear to you I'm not going to leave you, and even if you do ask me to go I'll put up one hell of a fight to change your mind."

Turning back to face him with slightly watery eyes, she knew she had to ask one more question to be sure about all this.

"How can I be sure?"

"I don't expect you to be completely sure of everything right now." He had to make her understand he wasn't going to make the same mistake again. "What you can be one hundred percent sure of though, is that I love you Rachel Berry."

Stunned she stared at him for what seemed to be the millionth time that day.

"You, you really love me?" She didn't let him answer. "You've never said that to me before. I mean you've said you care about me and things along those lines, but…" She trailed off.

Finally, he closed the distance between their bodies pulling her into his arms.

"I really love you."

She couldn't help the grin breaking across her face as he still managed to answer her question through small amount of rambling. She rested her against his chest listening to his heartbeat, knowing he wasn't lying to her this time, but not having the complete courage to bear her soul in front of him after the recent events she kept her head tucked under his chin as she responded back to him.

"I happen to love you too, you know."

Even though her answer seemed very nonchalant, he was breathless for just a moment. He didn't actually think she was going to feel the same way after all the horrible things he'd done. Pulling her tighter against his body he knew that his choice to not give her up in the parking lot was definitely the right one. They were going to be stars together some day, side-by-side they would make it through anything, Broadway didn't stand a chance against the two of them.

"I don't think the club is going to forgive you as easily as me though."

He laughed pulling her away just enough to look at her properly.

"I'm sure if I spill some secrets from VA's upcoming Regional plans they'll come around a little, but if not you can be my shield this time."

Laughing, she rolled her eyes and kissed him for the first time since he'd left McKinley.

'Oh yeah.' They both thought feeling that familiar stirring in their stomachs as they kissed. 'Definitely made the right choice.'

"Come on." Rachel said grinning. "We have to go get you retransferred back and talk to Mr. Shuester about you still being a part of our glee club."

"It's about to be a very long day." Jesse sighed.

"Don't worry." She was grinning mischievously at him. "The longest part is already over. You've already been egged."

With that she was running out the door, Jesse hot on her trail.

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**A/N: I feel a million times better now that I got that all out. **

**;)**


End file.
